Local Studies Department

Groses's Antiquities of Ireland: - County Kildare in the 1790's

KILUSSY CHURCH.

THE style of building in the steeple or tower
of this church is very singular, not being paralleled (as
far as I know) by any thing exactly similar in this kingdom, except at
St. Kevin's Kitchen, where the round tower makes part of the fabrick. There
are such structures at Halling in Kent, and Little Saxham in Suffolk.
THE time when Kilussy church was erected cannot be determined;
the monastic chronicle ascribes its foundation to St. Auxil,
nephew of St. Patrick; from whom it received its name, Kil-Auxaile,
or more contracted, Kil-Ussy. Let its age be what it may, we know
from the instance of St. Kevin's Kitchen at Glendaloch, built before
1169, that the original campanile or belfry was a distinct structure
almost every where, but particularly in Ireland, and that its approximation
to the church was by slow degrees. This belfry was, in those early
times, a round tower. Whoever wishes to see this curious subject amply
discussed, may find it in the Antiquities of Ireland by the editor
of this work.
There is a castle and house at Kilussy; the latter the feat
of Robert Graydon, Esq. the castle is a square battlemented
tower of great strength, and is fitted up and used as offices for servants.
Directly behind the house, on a rising ground, is Kilussy church: there
are a number of caves contiguous, a strong proof of the antiquity of
the fabrick.